Since the dawn of manufacturing, companies that produce physical products have been constrained by the cost and availability of labor and equipment, and the relatively closed nature of design, review, and production schedules. If a customer wanted to purchase a specific product from a specific brand, product availability would be based entirely on that company’s manufacturing production capacity.
The advent of the manufacturing as a service (MaaS) industry leverages a network of manufacturing infrastructure to improve the speed and efficiency of production. Instead of relying on a single company’s manufacturing infrastructure, firms leverage a common network of manufacturing infrastructure. The production machine—their maintenance, controls, software, and everything in between—are deployed in a coordinated way to produce products better and faster.
Once a manufacturer or contract manufacturer joins a network, their software applications and platforms are integrated and connected with others in the network. Because all the platforms are connected, product design reviews can take place quickly, and automatic price quotes can be generated from a review and processing of the required materials and anticipated labor costs and availability, and then an operational production schedule can be created and put into action.
For example, a customer who wants to produce a product can send in an order with all the specifications that the networked partners will then ingest, match it against their available resources, and then route the order and schedule it for operation. The key advantages include a more efficient and faster timeline from initial order to production, a greater availability of potential manufacturing partners, and the ability to complete smaller production runs without incurring the traditional capital and operational expenditure required when owning or contracting with a sole manufacturing partner.
A wide range of companies offer MaaS business models, including 3D Hubs, Xometry, fictiv, Proto Labs, and Dassault Systèmes, among many others. The distributed sourcing and production model can particularly help smaller companies that are often hamstrung by high labor costs, including the time spent discussing specifications, negotiating prices, and bidding out suppliers for parts.
These MaaS platforms and the companies that participate on them can also derive benefits that improve overall CX, as described below:
- MaaS platforms allow a higher degree of utilization of installed production capacity. By taking on other jobs, otherwise idle machines can be active, increasing the return on investment (ROI). This more efficient production model allows companies to schedule orders more efficiently for parts or products, reducing out-of-stocks, which can introduce production delays and frustrate customers.
- MaaS platforms can improve price transparency. Because of the disjointed nature of the parts business, pricing can vary widely, and manufacturing customers are often overspending. By improving transparency around price, manufacturers are able to compete on design, service, or other metrics that help foster deeper customer relationships, resulting in greater revenue opportunities.
- Better and more efficient localization of operations: MaaS platforms allow greater and more efficient localization of the manufacturing ecosystem. Having all parts of the ecosystem physically closer can improve design, production, and delivery speed.
- Shorter production cycles allow for more frequent production: A key element of CX is listening to customer product feedback. The tightly integrated production model afforded by MaaS platforms can shorten product run cycles and allow for customer suggestions or product issues to be corrected more quickly, thereby satisfying end customers more quickly than via a traditional production schedule.
Author Information
Keith Kirkpatrick is Research Director, Enterprise Software & Digital Workflows for The Futurum Group. Keith has over 25 years of experience in research, marketing, and consulting-based fields.
He has authored in-depth reports and market forecast studies covering artificial intelligence, biometrics, data analytics, robotics, high performance computing, and quantum computing, with a specific focus on the use of these technologies within large enterprise organizations and SMBs. He has also established strong working relationships with the international technology vendor community and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events.
In his career as a financial and technology journalist he has written for national and trade publications, including BusinessWeek, CNBC.com, Investment Dealers’ Digest, The Red Herring, The Communications of the ACM, and Mobile Computing & Communications, among others.
He is a member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP).
Keith holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Magazine Journalism and Sociology from Syracuse University.
